GP2 championship leader Pastor Maldonado could be set for a race seat at Sauber in 2011 after manager Nicolas Todt refused to play down reports linking him to the drive.

The highly-rated Venezuelan had been linked to Pedro de la Rosa's seat earlier in the year and it also emerged that the 25-year-old's major sponsor, PDVSA, is pushing hard for his presence on the F1 grid.

"I don't want to go into details, but obviously I'm talking to a few teams about next year," Todt told 422race.com.

Another front-running GP2 driver being linked to an F1 drive for 2011 is Jules Bianchi, who has a development contract with Ferrari and is also managed by Todt. Bianchi is currently recovering from a back injury sustained after a collision with Ho-Pin Tung in the recent GP2 support-race in Hungary.

"Jules is still young, he has two years of open wheels behind him, which is very little, but he is a very big talent and if he has the chance to do Formula One next year, he has to take it," added Todt.